The central bank’s August surveys point to confidence among consumers and businesses, even as inflation edged up to 5.0% on utility tariffs and fuel costs.
Households and businesses in Ghana were in a confident mood in August 2026, according to fresh survey results from the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the country's central bank.
The BoG said its regular confidence surveys, carried out in August, showed positive sentiment among both consumers and firms. It linked that mood to a relatively stable macroeconomic environment and expectations that growth will hold up in the months ahead.
Economic activity picking up speed
The clearest sign of momentum came from the Composite Index of Economic Activity (CIEA), a measure the central bank uses to track how fast the real economy is moving. The index grew by 14.9% year-on-year in July 2026.
That is a sharp pick-up from the same month a year earlier. In July 2025, the CIEA recorded annual growth of 6.1%, meaning activity more than doubled its pace of expansion over twelve months.
The Bank of Ghana said the improvement was driven by several components of the index, including credit extended to the private sector, international trade activity, and consumption of goods and services. Taken together, those indicators suggest businesses are borrowing and trading more, and that households are spending.
Inflation ticks up, but stays low
The one soft spot in the picture is prices. Headline inflation rose to 5.0% in August 2026, up from 4.6% in July, as reported by The Ghana Report.
The increase came almost entirely from the non-food side of the basket. Non-food inflation climbed to 6.8% in August from 6.1% in July. The central bank attributed this to pass-through effects from upward adjustments in utility tariffs and to elevated crude oil prices on the world market.
Food prices moved in the opposite direction. Food inflation eased slightly to 3.0% from 3.1%, which the BoG put down to improved food supply conditions.
Even with the uptick, inflation remains unusually low by Ghanaian standards. The central bank's medium-term target is 8%, with a tolerance band of two percentage points on either side. At 5.0%, headline inflation is still below the lower edge of that range.
Why it matters
For households, low inflation means the cedi in your pocket is holding its value far better than in the high-inflation years many Ghanaians still remember. For businesses, stable prices make planning, pricing and borrowing decisions easier.
For Ghanaians in the United States and elsewhere sending money home, the combination of low inflation and stronger economic activity affects how far remittances stretch for families and how attractive Ghana looks for investment in property or small business.
The figures cited by the Bank of Ghana are the kind of data its Monetary Policy Committee weighs when setting the policy rate. Rising non-food inflation from utility tariffs and fuel costs is the pressure point to watch in the coming months.
